


Spontaneous Adventurers Co.

by Go0se



Category: Marble Hornets
Genre: Alcohol, Dungeons and Dragons, F/F, Friendship, IFD 2015, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-01 17:14:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4028149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Go0se/pseuds/Go0se
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The group's movie night gets derailed for geekier pursuits.</p><p>(A fic of a fic, based on 'Left Behind As Static' by mistresspiece.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spontaneous Adventurers Co.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mistresspiece](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistresspiece/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Left Behind as Static](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1075427) by [mistresspiece](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistresspiece/pseuds/mistresspiece). 



> For my beautiful and talented trash friend, extremely belated I am so sorry.
> 
> The backstory situation, as well as Ren in all her glory, are from LBaS and are mistresspiece's. You should read it (if the warnings don't alarm you) as it is beyond comparison. This fic is set in a imagined future of LBaS where things are less terrible for everyone ever. The nerds are canon.  
> Originally this was supposed to be for the #IFDrabble2015 challenge but has utterly missed both the timeline and the word limit of a drabble. Tagging it anyway. The line that originally inspired this is [this tumblr post](http://outofcontextdnd.tumblr.com/post/109842384363/i-dont-care-how-high-your-seduce-is-you-cant%0A), while the movie that inspires in-story Jay to suggest the game is [ this genuinely love-inducing travesty right here](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190374/).

  
-

It was supposed to be a quiet movie night. Jay had, apparently, gotten the idea while looking up appropriately cheesy films for group viewing. He'd posited it to Amy, who'd agreed immediately. Brian had been a lost cause from the moment he'd walked in the door.  
Ren and Tim had only waited behind briefly, talking shop as inevitably happened whenever they saw each other outside of work, but by the time they'd got inside Brian had been eagerly sharing fond memories of his half-orc cleric from high school while Amy'd bubbled about how her older cousin had played when she was little and she'd always thought it looked like fun and Jay had just grinned. Both he and Amy had turned puppy eyes on their respective significant others when they told them the new plan. Tim and Ren, to their chagrin, found themselves outnumbered and outgunned.  
  
As it turned out, all of them had at least vague ideas about the rules of Dungeons and Dragons from existing in the Western hemisphere. Brian and Amy had more specific ones. "We need a GM," Amy said definitively when the group had moved from the 'wanting to do a thing' to 'actually figuring out how' stage. They were all sat on the couch and she was craning over Jay's shoulder to watch him typing away looking for how-to guides. “We can't figure anything else out until we've got one of those."  
“Straw game?” Brian suggested. At nods from everyone he went to the kitchen to dig some rippable flyers out of the recycling. He also came back with pens for everybody and a bunch of looseleaf he'd stolen from the printer in the office room. "For the sheets," he said. "It's... I mean, it's been a while, but I remember there being a lot of sheets."  
Everyone took a writing implement and some of the offered paper, while Brian ripped up the flyer and hid the ends of the resulting strips in his fist, careful to keep the visible pieces all the same height. "Everyone take one, and the last one'll be mine. Longest piece spins longest tale," he said, his smile illustrating his pride at that figure of speech.  
“Still can't really believe we're doing this,” Tim muttered.  
“It'll be more fun when we actually get into the fighting and stuff,” Brian replied, to Amy's laugh and Ren's put-upon sigh of “Typical _dude_ ”.  
So of course it was Tim who pulled out the long piece. He looked at it, bemused; it was from a supermarket flyer, blaring headline for barbecue sales cut right down the middle.  
Brian jostled him out of it with a good-natured “Awesome!” Tim looked up to see Amy beaming. Ren just gave him a quasi-apologetic _better you than me_ shrug, and Jay passed him the laptop with a grin before Tim could say anything else.  
Jay had already pulled up tabs of a PDF of the D&D core book, some beginners tips, and little one-shot campaign suggestions. Most of the latter had been pared down to bullet-point form but the PDF was huge. “You can look through it while we make our characters,” Jay said as the others started chattering beside him. They had all agreed that characters were the next step to go through, and then apparently they had to name the whole group like people would name a band. “And you don't have to read it all, or anything. Obviously. There's, like, two hundred pages.”  
There certainly was. Tim took in a deep breath and sat back down on the couch. It felt like a mistake, _him_ in charge of the story rather than Jay with his gift for words or Brian with his theatre flair or even Ren with her well-organized plans, and he was already starting to feel a little uneasy for all the attention. He didn't want to be the downer in the group (again) when everyone else was so cheerful, though. He focused in on the handbook as best he could.  
  
  
Around seven o'clock they had arranged themselves on the floor around the coffee table, using couch cushions as seats; Tim at the narrow edge with the laptop and the others sitting two to a side. On the table in front of them all were drinks, hand-sketched character notes, and everyone's phone opened to D20 Dice Roller.   
Tim had picked out an average city-related storyline; the others had come up with a name for themselves that they all agreed was perfect. The party was made up of a human witch, a halfling earth domain druid, an elfen sorceress, a human druid with her animal companion dog, and a non-player character elf paladin to go along with them, as the rules recommended for spellcaster-heavy parties so the whole group wouldn't immediately get squished.  All of them except for the NPC had an apparent penchant for trouble.  
The one-shot packet Tim had picked out placed everyone in the city outskirts at first, with the outlined intent to lead them into the river valley below it in search of a werewolf. Thankfully the packet also included some details of the city itself and the surrounding areas. Before they could start moving into the valley, Dig Craigsby had spotted a passing moth Tim had only put in as set dressing and decided it was a sign from his deity to take chances and 'go where the wind took him' that day. He'd gone traipsing after it and pulled most of their small group with him. They'd gotten into two scuffles along the way (mostly so Tim could get used to combat rules), and then took a wrong turn down an alley line with green brick. Now they were in the middle of a magically overgrown garden, totally lost and probably trespassing. Amy's druid, Sedie, had suggested they ask some of the nearby wildlife for help. Brian, with his weasel familiar draped over his shoulders--  
“Wait, I have this Charm thing!”--  
had taken the logic one step further.  
“Look, you cannot seduce the hedgehog,” Tim cut Brian off. It wasn't until the explosion of laughs that he realized what exactly he'd said.  
“Seducing hedgehogs is my job,” Jay said offhand as the noise died down. That, of course, set everyone off a second time. Jay raised his eyebrows at Tim up the table, grinning into his drink. (He'd made himself up hot chocolate with vanilla extract and strawberries.) “Hey, look," he said, “You _said_ that's what you would pick as a familiar if you were a witch when Brian asked you.”   
Tim took a sip of his water, unwilling to concede the point even though it was true.  
“I'm a witch!” Brian triumphantly threw two peace signs. He was three beers deep and, consequently, half out of his button-up shirt. His white tanktop and layering habit was the only thing saving his modesty at that point.  
“Yes, yes you are,” Ren said wryly, swirling her screwdriver around its round glass. For all she'd been aloof when the other three had tossed ideas around, she'd surprised Tim with how much she'd gotten into her character. Dovva Rosewood (sorceress, Charisma +4) had two cramped handwritten pages worth of notes on where she'd came from and where she was headed. She'd been in the middle of explaining it all through anecdotes when the hedgehog debacle had happened.  
Tim groused, “That isn't even what familiars are.” He'd flipped through the app to make sure. “I wouldn't be the hedgehog. If I was going to be the hedgehog there'd be a beast shape spell, or something.”  
“Or a class ability,” Amy spoke up. “Or a, uh, morph spell? Hold on... yeah, it's called baleful polymorph. That's not until higher levels though.”  
Jay pointed at her in agreement before setting his mug down. He leaned on the table with both of his elbows, petting an imaginary mustache across his face. “Right. A class ability. Like, say, a druid class.”  
"I'm not playing a druid, Jay,” Tim said exasperatedly.  
That was exactly what his boyfriend had been waiting for. In addition to the mustache-grabbing, Jay raised both his eyebrows. “Of course not. You wouldn't want to hog all the attention.”  
Everyone erupted again. Tim covered his face with his palm and sighed as loud as it was physically possible for him to do.  
When the laughter died down, Amy leaned forward so she could see Tim around Ren's cloud of hair. “I can cast speak with animals,” she said. “And then maybe Rocky can smell something in the air, a trail or something. So we're not stuck in here.” Rocky being Sedie's the druid's dog. Amy had decided on the name as soon as she'd chosen her class, "because he'll have grey fur", which Ren had thought was adorable. Brian had been too busy getting gleefully into his cups to notice how quiet Jay and Tim had gotten.  
Now, though, Tim just cleared his throat and nodded. “You can. I mean-- do you have it on your spell list today?”  
“She does,” Ren confirmed with a small smile, as Amy brandished her character sheet importantly.   
“Then yeah.”  
“I see what the hedgehog has to say,” Amy said, dignified, then took a long draught of her glass. Jay snickered a little behind his hand.

The game went merrily on.

  
*  
  
  
At half past ten everyone collectively agreed to take a food break. The party had finally made it out of the overgrown garden, narrowly avoiding an encounter with a water elemental in a pond thanks to Ren's character's smooth talking and good diplomacy roll, plus Brian's witch Alistar promising not to go stomping through any pond again ever.  With some fairly creative finangling Tim had actually managed to get them down into the river valley looking for the werewolf. He was careful not to add in any visible insects the second time. Although it was night, it wasn't a full moon yet, so they wouldn't be in _too_ much danger. Probably. He kept the NPC with them just in case.  
When they decided their marching order and started to descend down into the valley from the main city road, Brian sat back and hit both hands on his knees lightly. "Do we have any pizza?" He'd asked.  
Jay had done the most recent shopping trip; he shook his head. It turned they didn't have any soda, either; just orange juice, milk, hot cocoa mix, coffee, and Brian's beer on the bottom shelf in fridge. (Amy and Ren had brought their own alcohol over.)   
Brian had squawked indignantly. He'd insisted that pizza was the traditional food for these kind of adventures, and also Mountain Dew the traditional drink, that it was a travesty that they didn't have them already and he would get them immediately like right now.  
Ren semi-graciously accompanied him since he shouldn't be out by himself in his four beer state and god forbid he got anywhere near a steering wheel. Amy went along too, as she got very attached to her girlfriend when tipsy. Plus, she was out of red wine.  
  
Tim took a couple minutes in the kitchen in the resulting quiet, letting his shoulders unwind. It was good to be around his friends, but also good not to be around them after a while. He rubbed his forehead and wondered if he had the energy to feel bad about wanting time away from his friends on a night specifically for hanging out with them.  
Behind him, someone knocked on the wall and then walked around the counter to stand at the end of the kitchen space.  
“We can cut it short if you need,” Jay said quieter than usual.  
Tim didn't actually have a headache yet, but a soft spot above his ear beating to the tempo of the clock in the hallway suggested he might get one soon. He was thankful that Jay recognized the signs, even as he wished he didn't have them at all. He turned around.  
Jay was leaning sideways on the counter, looking relaxed in his thin sweater and sweatpants, understanding in his eyes.  
“I'll be fine,” Tim said. He wasn't exactly lying. His interaction-fuse hadn't run out yet, he'd gotten decent sleep last night, and work hadn't been so terrible today so his patience was as lengthy as it ordinarily got. And besides, he knew everyone here well, and Jay had been smiling so much. It was worth it.  
“You sure?” Jay asked, face settling into its more familiar worried look. “I can drive Amy and Ren home. It's already pretty late-”  
“ _Yes_ ,” Tim cut him off, then checked himself. It was ridiculous to be annoyed at his boyfriend for trying to accommodate him like this, especially when he was trying to convince Jay that he was okay to keep GMing for another hour at least. “Yes, I'm sure,” he added, more softly. “I'll be alright.”  
There was a short lull of quiet. Jay nodded to himself a couple times, then walked around the counter to put his glass in the sink, filling it with water so the weird chocolatey residue wouldn't stick and shutting off the tap. He turned to Tim and kissed him solidly, hands going around his middle and up under his shirt.  
That surprised Tim. He started backwards at the contact but thankfully bumped into the counter and saved himself from the embarrassment of tripping over. (Although that would land Jay on top of him, which Jay would be okay with.) Still, it wasn't unwelcome: he kissed Jay back thoroughly, groaning a little as his boyfriend gently pet his belly and sides. It was amazing how good that felt now, especially given how self-conscious he would've been of it even a year ago. Some of the tension drained out of him, the almost-headache draining with it. He really would be alright, he realized. He could do this.  
As they broke off Jay murmured, “Downright magical,” into Tim's ear.

At the exact same moment as Tim made a noise that was part snort and part weird horse laugh, the others all fell back through the front door with clatters and bumps and one ragged cheer from Brian. “We've brought the Mountain Dew!”  
Jay imitated Tim's noise mockingly, nudging forward to plant one last kiss on Tim's stubbly jaw.  
Tim pushed him off with a muttered, “See if I make out with you again," to Jay's unrepentant grin.  
  
Together they made their slightly flushed way back into their living room, where their woozy but determined friends were setting up bags of chips and Cheezies and one-bite chocolate cookies and, incongruously, carrot sticks on the table. A two-litre of Mountain Dew had the place of honour in the middle, several recyclable cups with bee designs on their upper edges set up around it like worshippers to a shrine.  
Tim appreciated the lessening of future dishes. Whoever thought of the cups, it was kind of them. “Okay,” he said, and then repeated himself a bit louder. "Okay. Everyone sit down."  
Brian and Amy giggled into their new drinks and Ren looked on with a sense of only mildly sloshed affection, Jay with the sober kind. They all shuffled back around the coffee table, easing themselves to the floor.  
Tim retook his spot at the end of the table and woke up the laptop as the others settled around him. “Alright. So, you all move up to a fork in the path; ahead there's more shadowy trees, to the left there's a bunch of vines that're covering an old doorframe in an abandoned cottage. Roll perception.”

  
//


End file.
